CALL is usually known as computer-assisted language learning and sometimes perceived as computer-aided language learning. There are also some other acronyms related to CALL but for now, the spotlight belongs to CALL as it is the main ingredient of this blog. It is fairly understood that CALL do contribute so much towards the development of English learning for both natives and non-natives speakers. Most of the positive impact do influence students in mastering English language and among the benefits are; increase in motivation, student-centered and higher order thinking skills. The students are seen to develop more self-confidence in communication and the class plays more emphasize towards educating the students as the central audience and finally it develops critical and creative thinking skills among students in their everyday life. CALL is applied to every aspect of language learning; 1) Listening 2)Speaking 3)Reading 4) Writing and 5)Grammar.
1) Listening
Listening is a part of communication process in everyday life as most adults spend almost half of their communication time listening. Some areas of listening skills covers; perception skills, analysis skills and synthesis skills. This theory encourages more focused attention and allows a learner to get a check on understanding early in the activities.
2) Speaking and Communicative skills
Speaking skills covers mechanics (pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary), functions (interactions) and social and cultural rules and norms (turn -taking, rate of speech and pauses between speakers).Podcast can be used as one of the medium to develop not only speaking but also listening skills that enable students to produce and publish their own recording. This medium sure help the students in enhancing their motivation and boost up their confidence. However, CALL is not highly capable in providing a software that is sensitive and accurate enough for language learning
.**Both Listening and Speaking skills are using PODCAST in developing language skills. Podcast is an audio broadcast that had been converted to mp3 or othersfor playback in digital music player. Podcast is a short form known for IPOD broadCAST.
3) Reading
Reading is the ability to understand, assimilate and retain stories and ideas communication through the written world. Reading includes skimming,scanning,guessing the meaning of the word in context and many more. Through out the time, CALL had proven to enhance language learning through reading. According to Ridder (2000), " highlighting words in a text on screen influence the amount of vocabulary incidentally learned by the reader".
4) Writing
Writing skills cover the vocabulary, spelling, sentence structure, organization and many more. CALL is closely associated with writing skills through email, word processing, blogger, text massaging and chat programs. Through out the years, CALL have been found as one of the best tool to improve writing skills as it serves better quality that enables students to key in the words neatly and orderly for further reference. Moreover, larger quantity of words can be typed as students will never be short of paper as they can type, re-type and delete their work using buttons. Other than that, spelling checker make the student's task even better as it trace and correct the spelling of the words automatically in just a click.
5) Grammar
Grammar is the main ingredient for all the skills that had been mentioned above. Grammar skills are used to improve student's sentence structure and with that, exploratory teaching of grammar rules had been applied onto them. Through out the time, computer had been used to supply loads of grammatical exercise for students and the latest is the grammar checker software. Well. it may be fairly understood how much the grammar checker could help students in perfecting their work. However, the long term negative impact would emerge as the students being too dependent on the grammar checker rather that their own intellectual basis.
REFLECTION.
CALL in language skills covers every aspect of language usage including listening, speaking, reading, writing and grammar. This process involves the incorporation of computer in language teaching and language learning which leads towards numerous benefits that had been proven through empirical research done by past and present researchers. As student, we can see the positive impact of the use of computer in our language learning throughout the years and one of it is by molding us to be independent learners. This is because; the knowledge is easy to access, anytime and anywhere. The software used by the computer help us to be independent to learn on our own and we could learn it individually or in groups. In Islam, learning in groups is highly promoted as we are sharing our knowledge with others, strengthening the ukhwah and also as an act of sadaqah to others as knowledge belongs to The All Mighty for us to share. In the lights of listening skills, we are trained to listen carefully and focus on the content of the message, keeping us away from being distracted. As for the speaking skills, we may improve our pronunciation, grammar, intonation, providing sentence structure and boost up our level of confidence when communicating with others. These skills are very important in the task of preaching and communicating with others as people who communicate well will look far more convincing in guiding our brothers and sisters to the path of Islam.
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